For some time now I have been experimenting with a combination of cross stitch, embroidery, and dyed linen. The following is the first of a series I have completed, loosely using the structural organization of cartography to deal with ideas about form and color. The process reminds me of drawing where the thread acts as the mark and the stitch a buildup of texture. I have completed four and will have another two done in a week. Weather permitting I should post pictures up of the rest soon (good lighting is hard to come by these days)

This year’s APE was a huge success. We sold out of both the new Scaffold comic and the Map Prints. Thank you to everyone who visited our table. It was extremely encouraging to hear all the positive feedback and talk with others whose work we respect. I look forward to participating in more expos next year like Stumptown in Portland and the local zine fest in golden gate park.

As for now we are moving out of our studio/living space and will be floating around the Bay Area and Southern California for a time. Conceivably by the new year we should be settled into a new home and back to work in Oakland. The first project I have planned is a second printing of The Map Print Series to be sold in our online shop and perhaps peddled around to local stores. In the coming week Jesse and I will be putting the final touches on a revised Scaffold Comic that will hopefully get some sort of distribution. I will give more details as they become available. Thanks again to all those who came out and supported us!

Here is the first frame of our Scaffold comic. This is one of two to be composed at such a small scale (the original is 12X12 in; the eventual book version will be 8X8 in). The other 10 frames in the book will be 200% closer in. This one will also be colorized for the print version.

Needless to say, a lot left to do. It’s heartening to see it finally coming together though. It’s taken months to figure everything out (actually a year if you count last year’s version of this same comic).

These are practice sketches for the new Scaffold comic.

(Click on the images to enlarger)

After the Lode show I needed a break from installations and large scale (in the physical sense) projects. For the last two months I have been working on two new art pieces and sketching ideas for a comic Jesse and I plan to present at the Alternative Press Expo in October.

Nothing is finished yet, but I wanted to share the works in progress.

Above is the first in a series of needle point drawings I would like to make dealing with the theme of altered cycles. After I complete the embroidery pattern the linen will be stained like the sample swatch on the right.

This is a detail from a work on paper I am in the middle of called Underground Chasm. When it is finished I plan to do a run of screen prints using the same composition.

Click on the pictures to see larger images.

All the photo sets for LODE are available for viewing on the site. Below are great shots my friend Will captured of the installation and people interacting with the work. More photos of us installing  in the Silverland Gallery and our journey to Virginia City can be found in  new work/LODE or the Latest Updates section of the website.

Thank you again to everyone one who came out to the opening. This was a wonderfully unique experience.

Sorry for the lack of communication. I am recovering from a week of chaos. Tons of amazing pictures were taken documenting LODE, the Art Center and Virginia City. I am wading through these images right now and should start posting pictures tonight on the website.  Additional images will be available on a  flickr page.

This was a very ambitious project that could not have been completed without help from the following people:

Jesse Eisenhower who was my collaborator on conceptualizing LODE and  its engineering. He also designed and constructed the lanterns.

Meilani Long and Riain Hager who worked tirelessly for four days straight, up until the very last hour, installing LODE in the Silverland Gallery.

Will Law and Eva Wang who were the master photographers and chefs on our adventure in Nevada.

Leah Ruby, who runs the Silverland Gallery,  for her continuous support and encouragement throughout the evolution of this project.

And the Saint Mary’s Art Center staff for their hospitality.

Thank you all!!

Less then a week till the installation opens in Nevada.

The last two layers are now complete. I have added images of both to the LODE Prep. photo set below.

This is an example of how the transparent panes will float below solid panes in the LODE installation. The iconography on the transparent panes represents a human presence in the landscape: transient or temporary communities that fueled a mining economy.

I will be posting pictures of the third layer tomorrow!

update: 3rd layer added to LODE  Prep. photo set.

Just finished printing the post card for Veronica’s LODE show. It took 3 colors and 4 pulls (including the text on the back).

There’s this phantom green square sitting inside the black square that I’m pretty happy about, but you can’t see it on a computer screen (not even in the blow up I added to the “LODE Prep” photo set below).

But when it gets to your house through the post you will see it. Hopefully we’ll send them out tomorrow, after they’re all dried out and cut up.

This is the Basin layer. It will hang six inches below the Sea and Lakes plane.

I put myself in the picture for scale. I had originally intended to photograph Jasper the cat with the work, but she was in the middle of a nap that lasted the better part of the day.

Above is an example of a pane with a 2 inch boarder around it. The horse pattern is printed on clear acetate.

The first layer for the LODE installation is now complete. This section represents a surrounding sea and large lakes. It will be closest to the ceiling for its reference to a distant time when much of the Great Basin was covered in water. The other three layers hang below concealing most of it except from the sides or through areas that are transparent.

The poster was finished a week ago. I added it as a picture in the “LODE Prep” image set below. It’s an 11X17 3 color silk screen. White, Black and Yam on Beige 80lb paper (pictures are photographs of the actual print).

As luck would have it the date for Veronica’s show was misprinted. I corrected it in GIMP, so the pictures of it here have the right date. But there are over 100 posters somewhere in Nevada with the wrong date on them. For some reason this poster has pulled the wool over my eyes again and again during every phase of its development, necessitating countless revisions and touchups. And I guess it wanted to do it one last time, like some sort of posthumous prankster, just to make absolutely irrevocable the thorough subjugation of my spirit animal. The flier is next.